In a Instant
by BCB-aWriterandReader
Summary: WARNING: SPOILERS, so don't read if you haven't seen All Falls Down! "In a instant, it reached a boiling point before becoming a simmer that made them both realize how close they came to loosing each other." Reviews are appreciated. Eclare forever!


**You do NOT KNOW how hard it is to watch and pause a TV show episode to get all of the dialouge. Hopefully, I got all the dialouge right from the episode, please don't hurt me if I didn't-like I said...I rewatched this episode, pausing and rewinding it to get the right words, so at least give me a point for that! XD lol**

**Anyways, this is a EClare story, though it's more of the thoughts/feelings I would think they'd have during the knife scene. I came up with the title first because I was rewatching the episodes last week with a friend and when Eli almost got stabbed I thought of the title 'In a instant...' really captured that scene for me and I thought it might make a good story, I espcially wanted to write about how it would feel to almost loose someone like that, because it really is a scary thing to face death as well as watch someone you love face death and almost loose them(sorry it took a while to post, I started this a week ago but I like to procrastinate with stories...and I have three other short stories along with two main ones I'm working on...so,). **

**Plus I wanted to kind of put the thing into writing because of the fact that I've read so many reviews over how many people think it was lame(my sister included...-_-)I know everyone was disappointed with this episode ending, but seriously-there doesn't have to be a death/rape for a Degrassi episode to be intense/epic. And personally, I think it was a good move that Eli got ALMOST stabbed instead of actually getting hurt because it was more of a revaluation to him rather then a tragedy. And by that, I mean that it shows how far things can get and how things can turn for the worse. Anyways, that's why I'm writing this, to kind of share also how I look at the ending and why it was more of a intense/epic boiling point then some people think.**  
**Plus, the music really fit with the scene and just made it even better! XD lol So please read and review(if you want, but it'd be nice) and please don't be mean.**

**Ummm, I KNOW I said I wouldn't write anymore fanfics, but I love this show right now and of course, the couple I'm obsessed with right now(and plan to never stop loving) is of course, EClare! Eli and Clare are so cute and I really hope that they stay together throughout season ten and beyond. At the end of All Falls Down pt2 we are left to wonder what is the status of their relationship, and while it isn't officially known, to me it seemed like they are still together and that Clare's comment was more of a warning rather then a break up. Besides, they have built up too much for it to just end like that so quickly. And they were meant for each other! :D **

**Btw: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS, Degrassi, Eli, Clare, and Fitz are owned by the guy who wrote Degrassi. I just wrote this story for pure enjoyment.**

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**In a Instant **

She had to find him-_now_. There was no time to walk, she had to run. Where would Eli go? To his hearse?-no. Home?-Adam said he was looking for her. The bathroom?-Clare couldn't think clearly. She just ran and hoped that she wouldn't be too late. Just that thought alone made Clare more frantic. She couldn't be late-she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if something happened to Eli. Her heart beat faster and faster, wishing that she had just told Simpson the truth sooner: that she set off the stink bomb. Then she wouldn't even be at this dance. And maybe Eli would of skipped out on the dance to come by and keep her company. And maybe Fitz would of just forgotten. And maybe then she wouldn't be so scared for the boy she cared so much about.

Bursting through the door and into the hall she saw Eli, back against the lockers, listening to his ipod. Clare felt just a second of relief before crashing into him and ripping out his ear phones.

"Come withe me, Fitz has a knife-"She breathed fast and only gave him a instant to take her in. "Come on this is were we run!" She blinked a little more and felt her body scream at her to grab him and just run.

Eli just stared at her. Not really sure what to say. He had come out there, drowning in his music, trying to think of the right things to say. To say he was sorry and mean it. To tell her that he'd let Fitz win, if it just meant that she could look at him again.

And for a moment, Eli would of run with her. He heard the word 'knife' and he realized what Clare had meant. He had gone to far. But that part of him that had promised he'd never let a bully make him scared, was telling him to not back down. He had ran from Mike when he was younger, he wasn't going to run from Fitz now.

But could he really face death now? Eli didn't want to admit it, he probably wouldn't, but he was scared. Scared and conflicted: he wanted to run but he also wanted to stay. Stay and show Fitz that he was a fighter. And luckly, his fear kept him in his place.

"I'm not going to let that jerk scare me." Eli managed, though the way he said it hadn't been brave at all. He looked scared, angry and foolish.

"_Eli_!" Clare exclaimed with widen eyes, feeling herself slowly fall apart as time ran out. She wanted to be mad at him-she wanted to be _furious _with him, but she was too scared to be. "He as a KNIFE!"  
**  
SLAM**.

"Aww, don't you two look cute." Fitz's voice ominously echoed down the dark hall.

Clare's heart sank when it hit her. Eli was just still.

The glimmer of the knife shined at them. Clutched tightly in Fitz's hand, not even bothering to hide it. Side by side, Eli and Clare stared down as Fitz approached them.

"You should go," Clare started, but Fitz kept walking. And while he could move, she found herself completely immobile.

"And let pretty boy get time with my date?" Fitz teased. Clare wanted to reach over and hold onto Eli's body. She kept hold of his arm instead.

"Please, Fitz, don't do this-" She tried again, but Fitz interrupted her.

"_Shut up bitch_!" He yelled back. Shocking her into silence.

She had been called a bitch before by their jock-favoring former principal, but this shut her up because Fitz had a knife. And he wasn't after her, he was after the boy beside her. The boy she didn't want to get hurt. To never live without. She just got him, she didn't want him to be taken away from her. Eli was jolted too, realizing Clare was there now that her being there was possibly the worst thing he could think of. She could get hurt, she could try to stop Fitz and he could hurt her and Eli would not be able to forgive himself if she did. He already lost someone before, loosing Clare would of been a whole different level. Just the thought made him sick to his stomach again.

"Get away from me." Eli said to her, and pushed her off his arm.

Clare backed up, tears in her eyes, clutching her arms to her stomach in a attempt to hold herself together. He didn't want her to be in the crossfire. When he was sure she wouldn't do something stupid like jump in front of him, he turned his attention to Fitz.

"Look, I'm sorry about before..." He said, his voice emanated vulnerability and broke down his pride. He didn't think 'I'm sorrys' would work now, but he had nothing else left he could do. "-everything."

Fitz smirked, shaking his head. "I heard that all before."

Clare watched but it was like she was like she was watching a TV show-it looked so real, she even felt like she was there but at the same time she wasn't. She could yell, however, it wouldn't make a difference for what happened. Clare struggled to find the momentum to do something. Scream-yell for help! Push Fitz back! Grab Eli and run as fast as you can!  
There was no longer a word for how she felt, 'fear' was not enough to describe it. Four letters? Not enough. Instead it was measured in the amount of heart beats per second(about a million), the sound of her gasping breath(as sharp as the knife Fitz held), the feel of tears as they clouded her eyes into a blurry vision.

She was loosing him! She was loosing him...she couldn't let it happen, so she prayed. She begged God with everything she had to offer: she promised to work even harder though she already had straight A's. She promised to stop complaining about her parents to him and begging for them to work it out. She promised to go to Church TWICE a week-heck, she'd go to Church ALL week if Eli was spared.

She promised God to give everything if he would just let Eli stay with her.

"This time I'm serious." Eli replied, genuine emotion flooding through his words.

He was serious. He couldn't GET anymore serious.

Not like before on the dance floor-when he was just trying to 'sell it'. He thought of Clare's lecturing, about how she wanted him to be serious. If he was just serious before and never spiked the drink, he wouldn't be standing there with his life on the line. For that instant, he knew she was right. He didn't want her to be, but she was. Not that he would admit it too her-not that she didn't know it already.

"So am I-" Fitz pushed him roughly. Eli just stumbled and didn't try to fight back. "What's wrong emo-boy? Have nothing to say?"

Eli let him push him again. His back crashed against the lockers. Eli stared at Fitz, not daring to look at the knife. He couldn't look at the knife. Millions of thoughts ran through his head. A lot of them were to fast for him to even recongize. Was this what it was like to have your life flash before your eyes? To have millions of familiar pictures of friends and family and school run through you head to quickly to even hold onto one? One that might be your last thought? What would be his last thought? Last word? Last sight? Fitz's sadistic grinning face? He wanted to look at Clare instead, maybe to have her face be his last thought instead. But then he remembered that she was watching him now. Knowing that she was watching this was killing him. He hated himself for making her see this-she didn't deserve this kind of night, this kind of sight to be seen by her pure, innocent eyes. He was turning her safe, sunny world into one of danger and chaos. Population: monsters with knives.

He had turned HIS world into that world. Granted it hadn't been full of gum-drops and unicorns before, but it was now dark and murky. Pitch black and Eli couldn't see a thing. He didn't know the safest way to go. He wasn't sure there was a safest way to go in his world anymore. He gulped and wished that Clare leave, hoping that Fitz would let her go. Not that he was sure Fitz wanted to hurt her, but knowing that she was even safer not being around to see his last stand. She was already falling apart looking at him the way she was. It was crumbling him too. Eli wanted to be brave, strong, he wanted to stand up to Fitz and mess with him like all the bullies in his past had done-and he thought he had done it too.

Eli thought that he had finally achieved what his younger self hadn't-status as a equal threat. But this was all wrong. This was not how it was suppose to go. Fitz was a different kind of bully. He was a darker kind. He was more then a bully, he was a pure, distorted shape of shadow that Eli didn't know how to fight anymore.

"You had this coming." Fitz told him. Eli heard a voice inside him say "Yeah, your right", but he hadn't seen it coming.

For once, Eli realized he never thought it would get this far. Or maybe a part of him did. At least not to this kind of point when sharp objects came into the picture. When fatality was thrown into the gamble. Not that he had enough chips to gamble with right at the moment. He was going to loose. This he knew. He had been gambling this entire night-no, this entire time. Gambling in this game of back and forth with Fitz. And now Eli no longer had the good hand.

Adrenaline pumped through his veins but Eli had no action to provide it with. He was stupid if he thought that he could try to punch Fitz. Fist against knife wasn't much of a equal fight.

Eli tried to egnore the fightening image of the grim reaper, lurking down the hall towards them. Coming to claim him. He wasn't ready for this, he didn't want this. Facing death, facing his own mortality was far more then Eli had ever imagined it to be. Death had always been a image for Eli. Misunderstood, like him. But now he didn't recognize it. He didn't recognize death the way he had seen it before, he didn't understand how this turned from punches to stabs.

"Please don't do this." Eli begged finally. Doing his best not to cry either. His eyes glazed, turning to glass-so breakable like his life was now. And Fitz held it in his hands.

"Someone has to shut you up-" Fitz delivered the last lines of the threat before providing the action to follow.

A simple thrust and it happened.

In that instant Clare cried out.  
In that instant Eli clutched his stomach.  
In that instant both their heart's stopped.

Then slowly, Eli slid down the lockers, his movement became lifeless as his stare flickered to the shiny knife that was now embedded in the wall beside him. Taunting him with it's glimmer. Breath left his mouth, but it took a moment to feel his heart beat again.

Clare rushed to him, her hands gripping his knee as she leaned in to see if he was o.k. The knife hadn't touched him. He hadn't be taken from her. He was alive. But Clare still felt so distraught. It had scared her to her very core. Just like when she thought her sister wasn't going to make it when she was in the hospital.

She looked up at Fitz for a moment, unsure if he might strike again. But he just smiled down at Eli with a sneer.

"Don't worry, you can bleach out urine stains." He teased.

Eli didn't even want to check if he had pissed on himself.

A bright light shined down the hall at them as cops burst through.

"Hands up!" One of them yelled.

Fitz kept smiling, like he really had won some prize and already had his hands up. He had been arrested before, so he wasn't scared. Not even as he was pushed up against the lockers and handcuffed.

Clare looked back at Eli and tried to say something but she couldn't form any words. Left breathless, speechless, but full of emotion. Eli stared forward at the lockers across from him, unable to really process all that went on in those seconds. One minute he was facing death and the next it was handed back to him.

Given a 'don't you DARE screw this one up this time' chance. He felt Clare's hands on his knee and it gave him a reason to breath again. He looked at her with the same shocked look, both a little relieved and still a tiny bit scared. He knew that Fitz was sending him a message: Don't mess with me. You think you have what it takes to run with the dogs, but don't kid yourself...

Eli hated it, but he couldn't do that again. He couldn't have that knife so close to piercing his flesh again. Especially not with Clare being in the front row. A few cops came over and questioned him and Clare-they told them what they could.

Not that it made any difference to what was going to happen to Fitz. He was still going to be stuffed into that white car with blue and red lights flashing above it. It wouldn't change what happened that night, how close things came to turning into something that would of changed both their lives.

It had only been a instant, but it had been enough to shake the very foundation of their worlds and the one they formed together just recently. The night became a combination of rapid cardio, lost breath, wordless silence, endangerment and close calls. And that instant-that moment when things became life or death. Where all falls down like humpty dumpty-only there were no kings horsemen or men, only Clare and Eli could put it back together again.

Together, bit by bit.

The lock-down was over but the rush was still wrapped around them. Clare and Eli walked side by side, out towards the front steps. Eli told Clare about Mike, Clare told Simpson about the stink bomb and he told them that when they came back-"_they wouldn't recognize the school anymore_". They expected that much. All of Degrassi would.

Eli kept by Clare's side and never wanted to leave it. He didn't want any distance between them because he wasn't sure he could hold himself together after what happened without her just a few inches away from him. Clare was his lighthouse, his beckon in the murky distance that he would swim through ice cold waters to. Because he was still scared and he needed someone to tell him that everything was going to be alright.

Clare was still, but she knew that the moment she moved it would be colliding into Eli. He was there, he was there and he wasn't dead. Clare wanted to embrace him, hold him to her with all her strength just to feel his solid form against her own. To know that he was there and he was alright. No blood, no wound, no bruises. Just Eli. Alive. There-with her.

So there they stood, anchored by one and other's orbit, gravitating them to each other. Tied together by a instant.

In a instant, she almost lost him. In a instant, he almost lost himself. In a instant, it reached a boiling point before becoming a simmer that made them both realize how close they came to loosing each other.

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A/N:

Alright, you knew this was coming: PLEASE REVIEW. Like I said, I really liked the boiling point-I don't know why people are so disappointed it. I know people were expecting death/tragedy from all the hype, but come one...if your heart WASN'T racing or you weren't the tiniest bit panicked with Eli was almost stabbed(even if you weren't a fan of his to being with) then you just had some blood lust and need a massacre happen to be satisfied.  
I understand what it meant by the boiling point, the way I see it, it WAS a boiling point. A boiling is when something reaches maximum heat-before simmering and of course, if something was going to happen, it would of been a explosion, and since it wasn't called the EXPLOSION point, then I think it fit nicely. At least, that's the way I interpreted it.  
Besides, someone was already stabbed on Degrassi, JT, and I don't think it would of been a smart move to repeat it. I really applaud the writers and like I said, the music FIT so well that it just added more emotion to the scene.  
But hey, if you didn't like it, then that's your opinion and there is nothing wrong with it. Though I think you should give them some credit, the acting was good and it was well orchestrated for a half-n-hour episode.  
So once again, please review, and I hope you enjoyed this. I liked writing it and I think I did a good job. And I can't WAIT for October to see what happens next! Oh...and ECLARE FOREVER! 3 :3

-Black Cat Bastet


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